Archive for February, 2015

The Greek new Prime Minister has fired a shot over the bow of the EU. To add insult to injury, he took out a open editorial discussing why he is fighting the harsh sanctions.

First, I would like to say that this was the head economic adviser to a very popular video game producer. That being said, I don’t know if that should bolster his reputation or hinder it. True, he was involved with a very profitable company. However, the rules that involve a company which is actively producing games that the public want to pay for are different than a country which is not known for any particular product and is blowing their money on expansive pensions at age 55. Companies rarely toss money away.

What amazes me is that he seems to be bluffing with an “eight high” hand.

His comment is that the EU cannot survive without the Greeks. The EU, like all fiat money, is built upon a false assumption of perceived value. Ask the Russians how that is working out for them now. Anything that hurts the perception of the value causes that currency to plummet. Why? Because there is no real value to fiat money. It is valuable only because we agree that it is valuable. In all fairness, even gold is fiat. In famine, no one will trade food for gold. However, gold is at least something…paper is only paper.

This is all true. If the Greeks bail, it will hurt the EU. However, do you know what will hurt the EU more? What will hurt the EU more is countries thinking they can spend however they want and the rest of the EU is obligated to bail them out. In particular, the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain). If the rest of Europe bails out Greece even thought they refuse to stop spending like sailors, then they send the signal to PIS that they can do likewise.

Germany is a smart country, and they know better than that. It is better to have 1 country pull out and default on their debt rather than to have four do so (and drag Germany under).

Imagine you have four friends. You know that you can help one friend, pretty much indefinitely, but you also know that that friend is not going to change their ways. If you help the first friend, the other three friends will demand your help. You know that you cannot help all the friends without destroying yourself and that (once you are destroyed) they will go bankrupt anyway. Also, you know that by helping one friend, you are obligated to help the other three. What would you do? It might break your heart, but only a fool would help them under these circumstances.

Greece is playing a losing hand and bluffing bad in a game where their opponent cannot fold. They are fools.

This isn’t a joke, and it’s not the rantings of a paranoid conspiracy nut. The ATF (aka BAFTE) is looking at changing the classification of the AR-15 round (.223) as “Armor Piercing.”

“Um, so what, dude?”

The “so what” is that this will, de facto, make the round unavailable to the US consumer. It is BANNED if they classify it as such.

This is wrong on so many levels. The worst of which is that it is cheating. They couldn’t ban AR-15′s outright. They can’t even drum up any sort of viable movement to do so. The reason is because people are rational and know that the choice of weapon is meaningless. If someone wants to kill someone and can’t get an AR-15, they will use a shotgun or a pistol or whatever. They also can’t even use statistics as the “assault rifle” accounts for a very small portion of all firearm deaths. So what do they do? They use language to rob people of their rights.

Honestly, even left-wingers should be furious and outraged. Of course, they won’t be. I haven’t met a left-winger yet that isn’t a “ends justify the means” person. It’s the end of the Communist Manifesto. ”By any means necessary.” It’s a mantra they live by. It’s Orwellian. You change the language to control the people.

The majority of .223 rounds are NOT armor piercing (the military does make certain rounds that ARE armor piercing). If they can do this with the .223 round, what is to stop them from doing it with other ammo? Why not?

This is purely agenda driven. They couldn’t get gun control legitimately. They couldn’t even get it after Sandy Hook and the media and Hollywood doing everything in their power to force people to “beg for gun control.” They couldn’t even do it by playing with language. Have you noticed that all the polls say, “Do you support common sense gun control measures?” Shit! Who’s going to say “no?” What would you be saying? ”No! I’m irrational! I am against all common sense gun control measures?” There is no option that says, “I know you are trying to trick me and that your definition of common sense has no correlation to my definition of common sense.”

We have just one month to let the ATF know what we think about this. Spread the word! Here is the pronouncement. Go to apacomments@atf.gov to let them know what you think.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I decided I would do a list of my top 10 favorite love songs. I will say that this was much harder than I thought. I will also say that I didn’t add anything out of obligation (such as Unchained Melody). Here is my list:

10 – Go Love by Mark Knopfler. The melody of this song just sucks me in. However, granted, it’s a bit of a self-ish love long.

9 – Reason to Believe by Mason Williams or Rod Stewart. Rod has the cooler version, but Mason’s has a frank honesty that generally comes from the original artist. This goes the other direction. It’s about a person so in love that no matter what his lover does to him, he always looks for that reason to believe that she loves him.

8 – Signal Fire by Snow Patrol. There’s something about this song that grabs you. I personally think it’s the opening. Then it turns into a really cool song.

7 – Love Song by The Cure or Adele. I prefer Adele’s version which is slower and more heartfelt.

6 – Lord, I’m Discouraged by the Hold Steady. This is a pure love song. It’s not romantic. It’s about a man loving a girl with all his heart and being unable to help her. The last line will break your heart unless you’re made of stone.

5 – Song for a Winter’s Night by Gordon Lightfoot. I’ve always loved this song. I always felt it was a very honest song. Just a man missing his girl and wishing she were there.

4- If the World Should End from the Spiderman Musical. You might think this is an odd choice, but there is something hauntingly beautiful about the lyrics and the melody.

3 – God Only Knows by the Beach Boys. Again, I’ve always just felt like this was one of the purest love songs ever written.

2 – Heaven Can Wait by Meatloaf. A beautiful song with beautiful lyrics. ”All we have is time until the end of time.”

and finally

1 – Bernadette by the Four Tops. This is what love should be. If you go online and read the lyrics, it sounds like a love letter.

Suddenly, we are debating vaccines? Are we kidding each other? We are making out that this is somehow an issue that the President and “presidential hopefuls” have to weigh in on? Let me break it down cold and hard for you.

Vaccines are proven science that they can prevent the spread of diseases. Several diseases have been eradicated using vaccines.

That being said, the government has no business saying that you HAVE to get them. The Left has absolutely lost their minds. They have said that the government has a right to require you buy a product (health insurance), and now the Left wants the government to tell you that you HAVE to get vaccines. On what premise? Oh, on the public good. The general welfare. It’s a public health issue, don’t you know?

Here’s where that falls apart. First, let’s point out that these diseases have been completely wiped out in America. It is rare that anyone gets measles or mumps. So, are we expected to believe that these diseases mysteriously appeared again? No one has gotten a small pox vaccine in decades. Why do we not have smalls pox cases?

The reason we are seeing measles return is probably because we are allowing “undocumented” children from south of the border to cross over. Did you know that legal immigrants are required to go through a very thorough medical exam and get a lot of vaccines prior to coming over? Illegal immigrants don’t have to do this. Is it possible that some of these children came bearing the childhood diseases we wiped out years ago? That does seem reasonable…likely even.

Of course, that’s the real reason we have this debate. The Left is demanding that we debate if the government can mandate we take vaccines so that we won’t have time to question, “Wait, where did these diseases come from?”

Of course, the “research” says that it is a direct result of these nutso trendy Hollywood types not getting their kids vaccinated. Um…so again, where are the small pox deaths? Haven’t had that vaccine in a while. Just saying.

Here is the thing – anything you put in your body has an effect. Mercury may be a minor part of these vaccines, but it is in there. It is a heavy metal and stays in the body for your entire life. Maybe that’s a worthwhile price to you. Maybe it’s not. But that is your call, not the government’s.

Not all vaccines are created equal. I do not recommend everyone go out there and get vaccines for every known disease. If there was a vaccine for Ebola, I probably wouldn’t get it. Why? Because I live in America and doubt I will ever get Ebola. People should make rational decisions to get a vaccine based upon the consequences of the disease and the likelihood of getting the disease. If the disease will not cause lasting harm or death, why bother getting it? If it is unlikely you will catch a disease, why bother getting it?

It is a dangerous path when you start giving the government the right to mandate your take an action or buy a product. Where does it end? Let’s allow this. Oh, but then they say that global warming is a public health issue. The number one greenhouse gas is methane from cows. So let’s ban the eating of beef and kill off all the cows and have people eat soy and other plant matter for protein. Exactly, how is that any different? Public health issue. Solved by mandate.

If you get your children vaccinated, they are protected. [I am aware that sometimes the vaccines are not effective, but in the vast majority of cases, they are.] If your neighbor doesn’t get his child vaccinated, and that child dies, it is HIS tragedy. It was his decision, and he has to live with the consequences. It is none of your concern, and it damn sure isn’t Uncle Sam’s concern.